Punjabi munda is up with Down

Down is up in Jay Sean's world. With the British-Indian singer's brand new single Down, featuring American rapper Lil Wayne, making a clean sweep - No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 as well as No. 1 on the US Top 40 - Jay Sean is up, up and away.
He says that he celebrated with champagne. Lots of it. "There were 15-20 bottles," he laughs. "There were all these people celebrating - my family in the UK, my friends in New York, the label in Miami."
There was also some honest-to-goodness desi pride.Though he was born and brought up in London, Jay Sean - originally Kamaljit Singh Jhooti - is a good Punjabi munda. He's also the first artiste of Indian descent to crack the No. 1 spot on Billboard. The track sold over 1.5 million downloads to get to the top. "I hold the honour in very high regard," says the 28-year-old . "My grandfather could not get a job in England because of his Indian background. He would have been amazed to see his grandson climb to the top of the charts."
LONG WAY TO THE TOP
In the US, where Indian-born musical stars are still quite a rarity, Jay Sean says people don't quite know what to make of him. Some just assume he is Latino. "People talk to me in Spanish all the time," he says, with a laugh. "It's very new for people. It's very exciting." His first US album All Or Nothing comes out in November 2009. He has just been on stage performing with big noise Justin Timberlake in front of 15,000 fans in Las Vegas. "The gig was called Justin and Friends," he says. "Justin chose his friends. It was incredible." It's a long way from Southall, London. He started out as a 12-year-old , in a hip-hop duo with his cousin, giving performances at community functions. But his first taste of real success was when he teamed up with producer Rishi Rich. Their song Dance With You (Nachna Tere Naal) hit the Top 20 in the UK and led to a record deal with Virgin. It also made him quit medical school. And yes, his parents were okay with it. "I've been asked that six million times," he says. "My folks are very supportive. They knew I worked hard. And they know that I am a big dreamer." But doesn't he worry that without his trademark hip-hop Asian fusion sound, he will become just another slick R&B singer? On the contrary, he says. "Had I carried on with that sound, I would have sounded dated. That was so 2004." He wanted to write his own songs. "A gimmick doesn't last," he says. "A great song, on the other hand, is still amazing after 50 years."
PLEASE DON'T STOP THE MUSIC
At the same time, he was chafing under the Virgin label. "Look, it's their money, it's their budget. They want you to work with the producers they want. I thought I am not a puppet. I know who I am as an artiste." And so he left Virgin and started his own label - Jayded. Its first album, not surprisingly, was called My Own Way. Then Ronald 'Slim' Williams from American hip-hop label Cash Money Records heard him and Jay Sean became the first British-Asian artiste to join Cash Money Records in 2008. Jay Sean is very careful not to make too much of his ethnicity . But he's also happy that it is opening doors for other desis in the entertainment world. Lately he's been keeping the gossip columns abuzz because he apparently tweeted Priyanka Chopra: "I don't care if you are shooting with Al Pacino, I'm stealing you for my next video." "It's been blown out of proportion," explains Jay Sean. "I wanted her to be in the video for Down but she was shooting . So I said she had to be in the next one. I am a big fan of hers."
BOLLYWOOD CALLING?
Jay Sean has already gotten a taste of Bollywood - he appeared in a singing role in the film Kyaa Kool Hai Hum. But he's not sure that he wants to act. "I am keeping my options open," he says. But his first priority is his music. And yes, there are a few people he'd love to work with in Mumbai. Such as Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Adnan Sami. But if he does take the plunge into acting, Jay Sean will have a legion of screaming fans rooting for him. His muscled body in the video for Down and his cool sunglasses have already made him a sex symbol. "It's the girls that keep us alive," he told interviewer David Frost once. And if you ask him about the six pack, he just laughs. "You get one opportunity to be in the limelight in the entertainment industry. And we know that sex sells. So you have to give them some excitement, right? So yeah, I take care of myself." But what about when he's back home in London with the family? "Then I eat my roti, dal, sabzi and paranthey all day long," he says with a chuckle.
JAYTALKING
Name: Kamaljit Singh Jhooti
Stage name: Jay Sean
Date of birth: 28 March 1981
First band: Hip-hop duo Compulsive Disorder, at age 12, with cousin Pritpal Ruprai
First UK hit: Dance With You (Nachna Tere Naal)with Rishi Rich & Juggy D
Debut album: Me Against Myself (2004, Virgin), with hit tracks like Eyes On Youand
Stolen(the video of which featured Bipasha Basu)
Label launch: Started his own label Jayded to launch second album My Own Way (2008); it debuted at #6 on the UK charts
Screen stint: Cameo in the 2005 Bollywood flick Kyaa Kool Hai Humwith his own track Dil Mera (My Heart)
Hit list: Clocked an astonishing 12 million hits on YouTube for the video of his single Ride It
Jay Sean on Down|
"I'm a very positive, optimistic person and I thought let me write a song about the idea that if you've got someone special in your life, then nothing else really matters, about how you need to appreciate the little things. The title is a play on the word 'down' . That's why Lil Wayne says, 'Are you down like the economy?' It's a fun, very easy track - something to pump in your car."